Abstract A method for the economically favorable recovery of both base and precious metals from asteroids is presented. After transportation to high Earth orbit, asteroidal material would be processed into silicate glazed, 10 ton, metal cones. These cones would be dropped to remote terrestial sites from Earth orbit. It is estimated that for an investment of $23–57 billion, the first 5 × 109 ton asteroid (1566 Icarus) returned to the Earth would yield a return on investment of $100 billion to $2.2 trillion. By reusing the retrieval craft subsequent missions would be even more profitable, costing around $780 million per year to sustain the program.


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    Title :

    Recovery of asteroidal metals for terrestrial utilization


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 13 , 3 ; 101-104


    Publication date :

    1985-07-02


    Size :

    4 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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